The John Alden Carpenter Papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 5 folders at a time maximum, and items in each folder will be counted before and after delivery to the patron (Priority I).

Ownership and Literary Rights

The John Alden Carpenter Papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

Cite As

John Alden Carpenter Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Processed by

Virginia H. Smith, 2004.

Biography of John Alden Carpenter

American composer.

John Alden Carpenter was born in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1876. His first piano teacher was his mother and he later studied in Chicago with Amy Fay, who was a student of Liszt’s, and W.C.E. Seeboeck, who had been a pupil of Brahms and Rubinstein. After graduating from Harvard, Carpenter returned to Chicago to work for George B. Carpenter and Company, a family shipping-supplies company of which he eventually became vice-president. He then began dividing his time between business and musical composition.

Carpenter studied briefly with Edward Elgar, and from 1909-1912 with Bernard Ziehn in Chicago. In 1913, he established his reputation with his song-cycle Gitanjali, based on poems of Rabindranath Tagore. In 1915 he produced his first major orchestral work, Adventures in a Perambulator – inspired in part by his only child, Genevieve (Ginny) and Concertino for piano and orchestra. Carpenter composed ballet scores: The Birthday of the Infanta in 1919, Krazy Kat, based on the cartoons of George Herriman, in 1922, and Skyscrapers in 1926.

Carpenter is perhaps most famous for his great output of piano pieces and songs, among which are Looking-Glass River, with lyrics based on the poems of Robert Louis Stevenson, Two Night Songs, with lyrics by Siegfried Sassoon, and Four Negro Songs, based on poems of Langston Hughes. His work in general has an impressionistic lightness, but ranges widely in expression from light and humorous to the poetic and moody, from jazz-inspired to patriotic, and from the popular to the non-Western. After 1937 Carpenter devoted himself mainly to revising and rearranging earlier scores. One of his last compositions was The Seven Ages (1945), based on the Shakespearean soliloquy.

Carpenter married Rue Winterbotham, a designer and interior decorator, in 1900 and following her death in 1931, he married Ellen Borden. Besides his composing, he was active in the Chicago musical scene, guiding the musical activities of the Chicago Arts Club, and directing the Chicago Allied Arts, which staged dances by Ruth Page and Adolph Bohm. Although Carpenter had great success in his lifetime – his concert music was presented by leading conductors and his songs performed by acclaimed singers – by the twenty-first century the majority of his scores have fallen into obscurity. However, he remains an important figure for creating works which are recognized as distinctly American.

Carpenter died in Chicago in 1951, after spending much time in his Sarasota, Florida, home.

Scope and Content of the Collection

Most of the correspondence relates to Carpenter’s musical activities, and includes letters written not only to him but also to his wife, Rue, and his daughter Genevieve (Ginny). There is one folder of drafts or carbons of Carpenter’s outgoing correspondence and one folder of correspondence with his music publisher, G. Schirmer, Inc.. Among the well-known correspondents of Carpenter, his wife and daughter are John Barrymore, Sarah Bernhardt, Marcel Duchamp, Percy Grainger, George Herriman, Langston Hughes, Serge Koussevitsky, Fernand Leger, Vachel Lindsay, John McCormack, Pierre Monteux, Gerald Murphy, Sir William Nicholson, Eugene Ormandy, Serge Prokofieff, Artur Rodzinski, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Philip Sousa, Adlai Stevenson, Igor Stravinsky, George Szell, Alice B. Toklas, Louis Untermeyer, Bruno Walter and Thornton Wilder.

Also, material regarding Carpenter’s ballet music, including a printed copy of the score of Krazy Kat and sketches of the costumes and staging of Skyscrapers by Robert Edmond Jones; a small collection of autographs including four with cartoons by Clare Briggs, Charlie Chaplin, George Herriman and Charles Schulz; clippings and miscellaneous programs, financial records both personal and professional, a radio interview, and information on his memorial in 1960. There is one folder of material relating to Rue Winterbotham Carpenter, including a lock of her hair. Also, one box of photographs of family and many celebrities, the most interesting of which are shots of Picasso and Stravinsky and one group photo featuring Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. In an oversize box are photos of Arthur Rubinstein and of a vast banquet given for Frederick A. Stock, plus a few designs for Skyscrapers.

Manuscript material relating to Carpenter's ballet scores, including a drawings of sets and costumes for Skyscrapers, 1926, by Robert Edmond Jones. Also, a published score for Krazy Kat, and a folder containing a piece of music he sent to his daughter, a typescript of an article subtitled "J.A.C. amateur columnist, 1932"; and a Christmas book list.

Adventures in a Perambulator,21121915Birthday of the Infanta,21131919Krazy Kat (printed score),21141922Krazy Kat,21151926, 1929The Seven Ages,2116ca. 1945Skyscrapers,21171926Skyscrapers: sketches for sets and costumes by Robert Edmond Jones (large drawings removed to Oversize)2118Miscellaneous music, article and book list2119Miscellaneous,1917-1961
Scope and Contents note

Autographs (some with small cartoons by Clare Briggs, Charlie Chaplin, George Herriman and Charles Schulz); clippings, financial records, memorabilia, programs and a radio interview. Also, material relating to a Carpenter memorial in 1960, and a folder relating to Rue Winterbotham Carpenter, including a lock of her hair.

A collection of photographs of celebrities in music and the arts, including Arthur Rubinstein, Igor Stravinsky and Theodore Thomas; several folders of images of Carpenter and members of his family, including his wife Rue Winterbotham Carpenter, his daughter Genevieve (Ginny) Carpenter Hill and his granddaughter Rue Diane Hill; and a few miscellaneous shots of places.

Arrangement note

Organized into celebrity, family and place photographs. Each category is arranged alphabetically.